Month: June 2013

Sometimes we may feel like therapy is impossible. But is the problem in our perception of the task at hand? More Than Borderline’s Becky Oberg talks about how working in therapy can be like pushing a boulder.

Right off the bat I’ll say this: It’s incredibly important in treating posttraumatic stress to have a completely strategized mind/body approach. In order to really heal both aspects of who you are need time, attention, focus and respect.

It’s the sad truth, but celebrities have taken over the world. For some reason, we find it interesting that Kim Kardashian named her daughter North West and we continue to watch re-runs of Jersey Shore even though we know it’s killing our brain cells. Celebrities take us away from the realities we live in and, sometimes, it is a positive way to escape.

I am certain that my grandfather-diagnosed with bipolar disorder in his early twenties-was not affected by technology. He was probably not bombarded by an onslaught of information available at our fingertips. This poses the question: How does rapidly evolving technology influence our mental health recovery?

It’s hard to tell the difference often – between whether you’re explaining something or simply making excuses for yourself. When you find it difficult to accomplish something and your Adult ADHD is holding you back, you may try to explain why this is the case and others may think you are making excuses. How can we find the balance in these situations?

Self-Care. I’ve been sharing my perspective on self-care for parents with a child diagnosed with mental illness for a few months now. So many of the parents I work with don’t practice good self-care. It is probably the last thing you think about at the end of a long, hectic day. You have bills to pay, a home to clean and a family to care for. So where do you fit in? When do you get your self-care?

The summer is the perfect time for relaxing, recharging from the hectic school year and is an opportunity to help build self-esteem in children. The activities families are already engaging in can be used as tools for building self-esteem in children, thus enhancing their sense of self and identity. Although we strive to help our kids feel their best every day, even during the busy school year, the summer lends itself to calmer schedules and more one-on-one time with your child or teenager. This the perfect set up for helping your child develop confidence and awareness of where they are on the self-esteem scale.

Many people think of fear, anxiety, worry, nervousness as distinctly different. Other people think they are all the same animal. For some purposes, it is important to see the similarities in fear, anxiety, worry, nervousness, and their relation to each other. Usually in counseling, I go with the definition the client makes on each of these in his or her own life. And that’s how we talk about them.

But when I write, I want to clarify.

Fear and anxiety are very different, as I am talking about them today.

In writing and speaking about psychological trauma, I am most often reacting to an ongoing perception that few people really “get it” – about many aspects of this whole class of mental disorders. This multidimensional misunderstanding is seen in many ways:

Today, at AA, we were reading a story from the Big Book. The part that jumped out to me was this:

“It was here that I realized for the first time that as a practicing alcoholic, I had no rights. Society can do anything it chooses to do with me when I am drunk, and I can’t lift a finger to stop it, for I forfeit my rights through the simple expedient of becoming a menace to myself and to the people around me.”

It made me think about AA sayings that apply to people with borderline personality disorder (BPD).